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Viral load confusion
May 3, 2008

I have been searching about and i cant seem to find a very simple answer to this question. I am a 20 year old English male living in France for the last 7 months. I found out two months ago that i am HIV+. My CD4 count is around 400 and my viral load is 500. My doctor assures me that i do not need to take any meds, but the language barrier is worrying me; i can speak nearly fluently but with medical jargon it gets a bit much.

Is my viral load low? Im scaling it off of my CD4 count. If it is higher than my CD4 does that mean there is a problem?

Response from Dr. Holodniy

Your doctor is correct, you are in good shape and you don't need HIV meds now. That is a very low viral load and means your immune system at least for now is doing a good job controlling the infection without meds.



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